September 2016

Hey Backers,

Wow, what a crazy few weeks it’s been. Sorry (as usual) for the lack of updates, but as we’ve mentioned before, we’re very small, working hard, and wearing lots of hats.

Obduction has launched to rave reviews, and most of you are up and running. The comments we’ve heard from Backers have been almost unanimously positive – thanks for that! We’re especially proud of building Obduction as a large, satisfying experience on a very small budget. (If you haven’t read the reviews you should at obduction.com/news )

Even with our good reviews, we still need your help to get the word out. Having spent the Kickstarter funds to make Obduction as good as we could, we don’t have much left for marketing. That means Obduction sales are dependent on word of mouth until we can afford to advertise. Thanks for your help in spreading the word!

We still have a small number of emails and requests from Backers who are waiting for a download key. We’re churning through the requests as quickly as possible, and we’re very sorry for the delay if you’re still waiting.

Patches and Updates

We have also been working on several patches and updates. Our second patch went live this week. This is a huge patch, and for almost everyone it provides an improved Obduction experience.

* Mac Kickstarter Backers will see some changes to their pre-release version – mostly good, some bad. Generally, the Mac performance has improved dramatically. Almost everyone should notice that. The bad news is that you may crash, or only see a black screen at startup. There are two steps to fix this. The first is to upgrade to MacOS Sierra which has fixes that Obduction requires. The second is to remove old shader cache files which we explain how to do at the end of this update. One more Mac issue is a new anomaly with Intel graphics that might make a lot of textures very dark.

Schedule

Our main patches are mostly complete, so let’s talk a bit about our schedule for updates.

Tuning the VR version of Obduction

* Our much-anticipated VR Update, enabling full support for playing Obduction in VR (with an Oculus Rift, initially) continues to improve. Obduction VR amplifies the experience to a new level of immersion. We’re focusing a large portion of our resources now on releasing this as soon as possible. The VR release will also include some other features and fixes. Stay tuned for specific release dates.

* The Mac version is also getting a major focus and improving dramatically. There are still some low level issues that require fixes that are beyond our control, and those are being addressed by Epic and Apple. Because of that, timing is looking like sometime in the fourth quarter.

Physical Backer Rewards

Bits are definitely faster than atoms, but we’re making lots of progress on the physical rewards. The boxed version of Obduction is trickier than the other items. Obduction’s physical disc will be installable and playable without an internet connection. That means it will not be easily upgradable, so we have to make sure we have final stable versions to burn on the disc. Because of that, timing is looking like the fourth quarter.

“Obduction is a triumphant celebration of everything which made the original so brilliant: the world building, the subtle story, the tooth-grinding puzzles.”

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